FFS goldfish- clearly the tank in too small WWYD

[krispmallow]

Hey everyone

My son decided that he'd like to get two black moor goldfish so we went to pets at home, spoke to a member of staff there for ages, asked everything we could think of and off his advice bought a 32 litre tank.

I was told that we would need 15 litres per fish, I asked if that was also suitable for a full grown black moor, wouldn't be cramped or stunt their growth and provide a happy sized tank which he assured me of.

So, we've bought the tank we were recommended and spent Sunday setting it up with live plants, gravel and two ornaments with the intention of picking up two baby black moor goldfish on Wednesday. I've started doing more reading to make sure we are fully prepared and have quickly come to realise that the tank we have bought is not suitable for one black moor, let alone two. Also we should be running the tank for a cycle rather than wait for 3 days like the store recommended.

I'm not sure what to do now. Is there any period of time that this tank would be suitable for two black Moors, for instance buy two babies and use the tank for 6 months before moving them to a larger one, should be scrap the idea of gold fish, buy a heater and get some other fish instead, or scrap this tank altogether and start again?

I feel quite gutted for my son as he bought this all with his birthday money and is very proud of it

I think you need 20 gallons for one and another 10 gallons for each extra, so about 140 litres for two? Longtime since I've had fish, so my advice could be out of date!

I have a 40l tank and was told by two different places I could have four gold fish of any variation so that's what I have. Don't put too much stuff in the tank they need room to swim about and they like somewhere to hide as well

Mine like to swim behind the plants so I have put them towards the back of the tank but not pushed right up against the glass.

Goldfish are one of the messiest fish and their ammonia output is high due to their large body compared to lots of other fish. They need far more water volume (and surface area) than most fish shops will tell you.

I've got a 4ft tank that holds 200 litres. I keep 2 black moors in there and a few smaller fish, but I also have a filter that's good enough for a bigger tank again as then there's lots of filter surface area for enough bacteria to process their waste. They seem healthy and are growing large!

You have to plan to accommodate the fish at it's fully grown size, and a goldfish can grow to the size of a piece of A4 paper, given the right conditions. And many are not, so die early.

Far too small for goldfish I'm afraid, but well done you for reading up on it and realising before you got the fish. PaH are notoriously crap at fish advice.

I would get a little heater (very easy to maintain, should cost about a tenner) and go to an independent fish shop and ask their advice - in 30 litres you could have a male betta (lovely colours on the males and they have proper little personalities, I swear!), a couple of corydoras catfish and maybe 5 small tetras. That would look quite attractive together.

Another person misadvised by P@H.

We were advised by them last year we could have 3 goldfish in a 25L. We bought 2 and they were babies.

Within a few weeks before purchasing the 3rd they started to grow quickly.

Within 4 months we were purchasing a £600 huge aquarium and a £100 oversized filter.

1 of my two goldies died but my very massive one who was starting to outgrow our huge aquarium went into a friends pond a month ago.

We still have our original 25L tank and turned it tropical. For £10 you can get a heater and some beautiful fish. We had guppies but they didn't last very long. We now have a Betta.

In your shoes unless you have space for a 200L tank in less than 6 months time I would personally get tropical fish.

Goldfish are messy, constantly need cleaning out and it's so time consuming as they have a huge waste load.

To put into perspective of how messy / how big they grow. We had 2 to our large aquarium. Now our tank is tropical we have
6 angle fish
3 corys
6 neons
6 tetras
2 dwarf gomaris
2 German blue rams

Atleast you have read up first and not been caught out like so many of us have.

Agree with another poster to find a local independent aquatics shop that will give you great advice.

weeds yes that sounds about right. I think the absolute minimum we could have gotten away with was 90l for two, but that would have been pushing it and I wouldn't be comfortable with anything less than 125 after reading up

cushion how old are your goldfish? What pet stores advised you? When I phoned and spoke to the store manager before going in he said that realistically, 34l would only be suitable for them for 2-3 months

drmadeline this is part of what I am so annoyed about. I asked the person in store if that sized tank was suitable for black moors to grow to their full potential and live a happy life in that tank as I wouldn't want to be upsizing down the line and he assured me it was. He pointed out some small black moor in their store and said they didn't get much larger than that. I phoned and spoke to customer services today before phoning and going back to the store and I swear the woman on the phone told me that they advise smaller tanks on the understanding and agreement that the size will be increased down the line, I told her that I specifically said I intended on buying a tank suitable for a fully sized black moor and was still advised the 34l.... to then be told that if their store assistants were to advise everyone that they're going to need a huge tank for their goldfish then no one would buy them 😡 (and too right too, it would stop naive people like me buying them!)

toomuch thank you. I spoke to my son about it and he is understandably upset as he had his heart set on black moor. I took him back to the store to see the tropical fish and buy a heater but to be honest his heart doesn't seem set on it. If we do get tropical fish I'm going to go to a proper aquatics store. I'm not comfortable with commuting to tropical fish just because we have a tank though (and a hole drilled in the walnut we have the tank set on to feed the cables through!). I'm also really disappointed for him as he usually saves all his birthday and Christmas money, has spend a load on something and the end result isn't even going to be what he originally intended the money for.

pink I'm so annoyed to see you were also misadvised but glad you stuck by your fish and got them a massive tank. The stingy bookkeeper in me is not comfortable with letting my son spend this amount on a fish tank set up. To be honest my heart sunk a little when he said he wanted to spend what he did in the first place (he usually saves 90% and spends 10%!). He's just turned 8 and I think it's an awful lot of his own money to invest at the moment.

I'm also really annoyed with myself for blindly trusting this advice when it took me two minutes on google to read, and check from a few different sources that the tank we had bought was entirely unsuitable.

Totally outing but I've taken this to twitter if anyone can please retweet as I'd like the option of a full refund if my sons heart isn't ultimately set on tropical fish

Fully grown black moors are about the size of a tennis ball - in a small tank they suffer painful stunting, which ultimately leads to a slow and painful death. PaH know this but still put profits ahead of fish welfare. Makes me really angry.

I do love a healthy, big black moor. They are my favourite fish.

We had the same spiel how they don't grow much bigger that these were miniature gold fish. My ass!

I swear it's some marketing ploy to get you back in the shop spending more £££ in a few months time.

Tropical fish are no different in terms of care. Just need warmer water. It's marine fish that's very complicated and need special water.

P@H also have a Facebook page, may be worth complaining on there too.

If you can't get your money back is there a Madienhead aquatics near you? They are very knowledgeable and can talk you and your son through your options.

Update:

Took my son to a proper aquatics centre and had a lovely lady talk to him about the fish he could keep in his tank.

He's been recommended a beta, some African drawf frogs and black neon tetras.

We are going to wait for the fish-less cycle to finish before starting to introduce the fish with the beta last.

Was very pleased to see the sign on the front door too, nice to see a shop putting animal welfare before profit unlike pets at home!

That's great news. I'm pleased you found a reputable shop and your son has found something he would like. Our Madienhead Aquactics are amazing and they know there stuff.

Yes a fishless cycle is a must really for a Betta. They are quite hardy but like good quality water. I'm constantly doing water changes for ours. Ours came from P@H but he's been batting fin rot since we had him.

We have a Siamese Fighter fish (betta) and I love him! Please bear in mind though that some are extremely grumpy and territorial, and will not tolerate tank mates. Others are more easygoing.
Tetras can be fin nippers, so be careful with those too.

I've name changed since but everyone

Please meet Delty the blue super delta

He's a giant show off and massive attention seeker. So far fine with the black tetras.

It's the African Drawf Frogs that are currently giving me trouble the naughty little shits.